My Homily on the A-Team

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This homily was given on Wednesday, April 28 and was based on the daily readings that can be viewed here.  What can I say?  It’s what happen when I get “homilist block” while surfing movie trailers on iTunes.

I love summer movies… and I got very very excited when I saw what one of the movies coming out this summer. One of my favorite TV shows growing up is going to be a major Hollywood motion picture… The A-Team! Seriously!!! For those of you who were too distracted by such “higher quality” shows such as Hill Street Blues in the Eighties and never got the chance to watch Mr. T strut his stuff, The A-Team is about these four soldiers who were convicted for a crime they didn’t commit. So they escaped from army custody and now travel the country as outlaws, looking to help those who cannot help themselves against bad people… very bad people.

The leader of the group is called Hannibal, famously played by George Peppard of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” fame. And his famous line in the TV show—after the A-Team beat whatever evil person they were challenging that week—was, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

You know, I imagine that Hannibal is a lot like God. God loves it when a plan comes together… more specifically, God loves it when His plan for our lives and for our world comes together. We know about God’s plan for his through His Word… Jesus. It is Jesus who lets us know that God’s plan is for us to live in a peaceful world. It is God’s plan that we love one another. It is God’s plan that we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take care of the sick.

But we all have times when we don’t love one another. We all have times when we don’t treat others as we would want to be treated. We all have times when we hear what Jesus says to us… but don’t listen. And it’s during these times that we can get stuck. We can get stuck noticing all of the ways other people fall short. We can get stuck beating ourselves up when we don’t find ourselves aligned with God’s plan. And to all of those situations, Jesus responds, “If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.”

What the Gospel tells us today is that yes, God does love it when His plan comes together. God loves it when we love one another and when we treat each other as we would like to be treated. But as Jesus tells us, for those times when we don’t fulfill our part of the plan, God is there to forgive us. For those times when we don’t fulfill our part of the plan, Jesus is here to help us become even more a part of his A-Team.

Father Tom Gibbons was ordained a Paulist priest in 2012. Prior to becoming a priest, he spent time as a Jesuit Volunteer in Phoenix, AZ, working with immigrants in El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. He's also worked as a graphic designer and web developer, serving nonprofits like Success For All Foundation, Baltimore City Head Start, and Catholic Relief Services. He previously wrote a blog entitled “Kicking and Screaming” for Busted Halo. After serving as a deacon at Holy Trinity Parish in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., Father Tom was sent to St. Peter’s Church in Toronto, where he first served as Associate Pastor and then as the Parish Administrator. In 2016, he produced a documentary on the founder of the Paulist Fathers, entitled “Isaac Hecker and the Journey of Catholic America” – featuring celebrity voices of Martin Sheen, Matt McCoy, and Bob Gunton. Father Tom is currently at work on a new documentary investigating the complicated legacy of the Catholic Church in California with the film “Junipero Serra: Statue of Limitations,” scheduled for release in 2022. In addition to his work as Vice President of Paulist Productions, Father Tom also performs pastoral work at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church and Transfiguration Catholic Church in Los Angeles, CA.